Improving Writing Skills

Improving Writing Skills

• Position and Thesis Statements

• Adding Details

• Revising to Clarify Sentences

Position and Thesis Statement

The central idea or argument of the essay is the thesis or position statement.

The STAAR uses position statement for persuasive and thesis for expository.

Let's practice position statement

• Read the excerpt and the multiple-choice questions carefully before you select your answers in the following slides.

Multiple Choice

• A

• B

Multiple Choice

• F

• G

Multiple Choice

• A

• B

• C

Adding details, What does that mean ?

• STAAR questions about details means: adding, deleting, or better organizing sentences.

What does it look like ?

• Where should this sentence be inserted?

• Where is the most effective place to insert this quotation?

• The first 2 questions give you a sentence or quotation to add. the next 2 questions ask you to decide which sentence to add or delete.

• Which sentence can Jack add after sentence 17 to provide additional support?

• Which of these sentences unnecessarily repeats information and should be deleted?

Let's try some practice with adding details

Read the excerpt and the multiple-choice questions carefully before you select your answers in the following slides.

Multiple Choice

question 1

• A

• B

Multiple Choice

question 2

• F

• G

Multiple Choice

question 5

• A

• B

• C

Multiple Choice

question 6

• F

• G

• H

Revising to clarify sentences

• clearer, more engaging, and effective

• what you need to know: the best combination that preserves the sense of the original sentence

• 
  

What does it look like?

• What is the most effective way to combine sentences A&B?

• What is the most effective revision to make...

• What is the most effective way to revise sentence #?

• Let's practice this now.

Multiple Choice

question 1

• A

• B

Multiple Choice

question 2

• F

• G

Multiple Choice

question 5

• A

• B

• C

Multiple Choice

question 6

• F

• G

• H

Questions like these appear in the Revising section of the STAAR Exam.